After beating the then-Big 12 leading Oklahoma Sooners on the road on Big Monday, the Kansas Jayhawks returned to Allen Fieldhouse to trounce the highly ranked Missouri Tigers.
All that since the last edition of Top 25 polls came out, meaning the Jayhawks were expected to see a big boost in their rankings. We now know how big.
In both ESPN/USA Today and Associated Press polls out this afternoon, KU moves from No. 15 to No. 9.
There are now three conference teams in the ESPN rankings, with Texas dropping out with a loss over the weekend.
AP Top 25
1. Connecticut (67) 27-2 1,792
2. North Carolina (3) 25-3 1,678
3. Pittsburgh (1) 26-3 1,612
4. Oklahoma 26-3 1,576
5. Memphis (1) 26-3 1,543
6. Louisville 23-5 1,462
7. Duke 24-5 1,340
8. Michigan State 23-5 1,302
9. Kansas 24-5 1,190
10. Wake Forest 22-5 1,158
11. Villanova 23-6 913
12. LSU 25-4 894
13. Marquette 23-6 860
14. Gonzaga 23-5 837
15. Missouri 24-5 795
16. Washington 22-7 704
17. Xavier 23-5 629
18. Clemson 22-6 564
19. Purdue 22-7 545
20. UCLA 22-7 497
21. Arizona State 21-7 347
22. Butler 25-4 302
23. Illinois 23-7 287
24. Florida State 22-7 272
25. Syracuse 21-8 99
ESPN/USA Today Top 25
1. Connecticut (27) 27-2 769
2. North Carolina 25-3 711
3. Memphis (4) 26-3 698
4. Pittsburgh 26-3 667
5. Oklahoma 26-3 653
6. Louisville 23-5 630
7. Duke 24-5 597
8. Michigan State 23-5 557
9. Kansas 24-5 509
10. Wake Forest 22-5 480
11. LSU 25-4 420
12. Missouri 24-5 377
13. Washington 22-7 346
14. Gonzaga 23-5 339
15. Marquette 23-6 327
16. Villanova 23-6 324
17. UCLA 22-7 295
18. Xavier 23-5 260
19. Clemson 22-6 219
20. Purdue 22-7 211
21. Arizona State 21-7 189
22. Butler 25-4 168
23. Illinois 23-7 107
24. Florida State 22-7 67
25. Syracuse 21-8 37
Comments
charliejohnson 4 years, 2 months ago
looks better now.
1029 4 years, 2 months ago
Well, 3 of KU's 5 losses are right there in the top 25. And Arizona is not that far off the top 25--#38 on the ESPN/USA Today. UMass is pretty pathetic, though.
I wish Memphis would play a real basketball team. The fact that they made it to the championship game last year is all that is keeping them from being exposed for being riduculously overrated. Had they lost early last tournament, people might realize that beating up on weak teams shouldn't automatically mean a high ranking. I don't think they'll go nearly as far this year, but it definitely helps to go into the tournament fairly rested after rarely facing much of a challenge from such a loser conference. I bet the Johnson County Community College Cavaliers could beat just about every team in Conference USA.
1029 4 years, 2 months ago
By the way, whoever gave Memphis that #1 vote is an idiot. That person should be sought out and his/her vote should be taken away.
rooster 4 years, 2 months ago
As for the hawks being #9, this season has already been the icing on the cake. I hope they continue playing tough. But, they have already provided fans this year with more than we could have hoped for. Last april I was hoping for a decent team that wouldn't lose to k-state. Who would have guessed we might win the season???
rooster 4 years, 2 months ago
The twins need more energy and focus. Too slow and unnecessary fouls. But for freshman they are good.
Omegatron 4 years, 2 months ago
Right where I thought we where going to be towards the beginning of conference. Right in the mix for the conference title.
As long as we win at least a share of the regular season title, win the conference tournament title, and make the tournament field, it's a good year.
Everything else is icing on the cake.
notajayhawk 4 years, 2 months ago
The_Original_Bob (Anonymous) says…
"Ignore those meaningless polls. This is the one that is important…"
One of the problems with RPI is it ends up taking into account factors that may not have had anything to do with the situation when you actually played a given team. When team A plays team B, team B may have been undefeated and had a top RPI or power ranking at that time - then losing a starter to an injury or a similar occurence may have started a slide which dropped them into oblivion, and that ends up affecting your own ranking.
And there's reasons some teams play cupcakes in the early season. UConn plays against the other Connecticut schools (not many powerhouses there) and against teams coached by former Calhoun assistants. And in a 16-team conference, you're going to play against a few weak teams. But despite the fact that they're undefeated on the road, won an early tournament (beating 2 then-ranked teams), have beaten 9 then-ranked teams altogether, have only two losses (one of which is to another team that's been ranked at the top twice this year), and a host of other strong indicators, they only have the 19th SOS and are only 6th in RPI.
RPI shows who you have beaten, and in turn who they beat. It is a useful predictor, but not the last word on who you can beat. I'll still take the opinion of the college coaches over that of either sportwriters or a computer. If you remember after the Mich. St. game, for example, Izzo had nothing but good things to say about KU - including decrying the fact that KU wasn't even ranked at the time.
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